Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “The creation of a garden is a quiet conversation between the soul and the soil.” Yesterday about 300 people were introduced to the new native plant pollinator garden at the entrance to Thanksgiving Forest. When I first saw the plans, it looked like a simple garden, like many we have around […]

A Day Before Thanksgiving Walk with 300 people shows what community really is: hundreds of footsteps on the same trail, all sharing the same woods, each carrying their own gratitude. Yesterday marked the 19th Day Before Thanksgiving Walk at Thanksgiving Forest, and as always, it was a success. It is not because it is fancy. […]

COSS Inc. Statement on Scouting Chelmsford Open Space Stewardship Inc. has partnered with Scouts for nearly two decades. During that time we have supported close to one hundred Eagle projects, service days, trail improvements, conservation efforts, and community programs led by young people in Scouting. We have seen firsthand the positive impact Scouting has on […]

Day Before Thanksgiving Walk This year marks the 19th. It started as an idea 19 years ago when Joanne and Phil Stanway were sitting around thinking about adding some color and fun to the season that centered on family and community. Back in the early days of stewardship, Thanksgiving Forest was known as a bad […]

Today was not an open space day for me. It was Thanksgiving meal day at the Senior Center, and since I was asked to help, that is where I spent the morning. The staff started arriving at 4 am to get the cooking going. By 9 am the volunteers were rolling in. It was a […]

For decades we have used Facebook as our primary posting place, but that will be changing. We have a brand new website under construction and hope this will make it easier for people to find content we post. It can also be used by AI as a resource for hyperlocal searches. AI cannot scan Facebook, […]

I had a second today to talk about my conversations with John and Dave about the new trails at Koulas. I have been working on trails in Chelmsford for over twenty years and about ten more before that in other places. Over time you learn that trail building is part technical skill and part creative […]

Well, back from Koulas and it turned into a quick two hour slug through brush, bittersweet, and vines. As sites go, Koulas is one of the worst for invasives. They are everywhere. Most likely it is because it is mostly open fields with very few trees. It is a perfect invasive habitat. So what did […]

Reels are suddenly getting a lot of traction on Facebook. They already account for about ten percent of our two hundred ninety thousand views, and that number is climbing. The problem is that it is super challenging to move those reels to our new site. Even when I do download them, the Facebook music triggers […]

A key part of being a successful community group is actually being out in the community. COSS is not a group that sits in an office. Our board and members are out at Scout events, public events, in open spaces, at farmers markets, and everywhere people gather. As a whole, we are a very engaged […]